Changing Careers to Social Work
Thinking about making a career change to social work? Social work is a meaningful career, and it’s also an attractive one. The following sections explore how the career change to social work can be a way for you to find meaning in your day-to-day work. You’ll also learn more about career opportunities and how the education you’ll need can fit into your current schedule. Finally, you’ll explore how your current career skills and experience can play a role in helping you succeed as a social worker.
Note that all employment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Why Make the Career Change to Social Work?
When you consider making the career change to social work, the “why” behind it is remarkably clear: You’ll get to help people. Social work is one of a select number of careers where that goal is so explicit.
Social work is solely focused on improving the quality of life for people, and social workers interact with and help people who need it the most. In social work, you’ll make a difference by being there for at-risk populations who often struggle to receive help. Those populations include individuals with disabilities, living in institutional settings, from diverse cultures, who are homeless, and more.
Featured Online Social Work Degrees
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- LocationCampbellsville, KY
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationChristian
- Cost Per Credit$399
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Develop an understanding of the basics of social work while also gaining hands-on, practical experience in the field with the online Bachelor of Social Work program from Campbellsville University. Through the program, you’ll learn the historical and contemporary principles of social work, as well as the theoretical perspectives related to the field. You will also discover the necessary skills for performing generalist social work practice in a variety of areas: communities and organizations, individuals, families, and groups.
View Website for Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Request Info -
- LocationBristol, TN
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationPresbyterian
- Cost Per Credit$305
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King University’s online Bachelor of Social Work degree program is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to become global citizens and make an impact in an in-demand career in social work or human services. Choose between three concentrations — nurse educator, administrator, and PNP — and learn to apply advocacy and intervention strategies to support individuals, families, groups, communities, and organizations.
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- LocationAurora, IL
- Accreditation(s)HLC
- Religious AffiliationPrivate
- Cost Per Credit$425
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Develop the skills and knowledge needed to begin social work practice with the online Bachelor of Social Work degree completion program from Aurora University. You’ll be prepared to work with communities, groups, families, and individuals in a variety of settings as well as with diverse populations and problems.
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As a social worker, you’ll be able to help people who are disadvantaged in some way. Their needs can range from communication and independence to receiving health services and access to mass transit. You can also impact change at broad levels to help systems with prevention and early intervention for at-risk populations.
Another plus to making the career change to social work is that it’s a growing field. Employment of social workers is projected to increase at a rate that is more than double the average for all occupations. Different specialties boast high job outlook figures, too. By 2026, the employment rates of the following specialties are projected to increase 14%:
- Employment of child, family, and school social workers
- Employment of healthcare social workers
- Employment of mental health and substance abuse social workers
There are additional opportunities, too. Because social work is focusing more on prevention and early intervention, positions are opening in nontraditional sectors, such as business and public policy. Making the career change to social work can integrate one or more of those specialties or aspects, providing you with many career possibilities.
Information about Social Work Careers
Need a better idea about the profession? Here’s some more information that can help you approach a potential career change to social work.
What Social Workers Do
Generally, social workers help people with issues in their everyday lives. A look at some common responsibilities of social workers can help you get a better sense of what being a social work often entails.
- Determining clients’ goals by examining their needs, situations, strengths, and support networks
- Helping clients with certain changes and challenges, like unemployment, medical events, and strained family relationships
- Linking client to community resources, like childcare and healthcare needs
- Providing support and assistance during crisis situations
- Helping create, maintain, and evaluate programs that help provide basic services to clients
Ultimately, your responsibilities as a potential social worker will depend on your specific role, industry, and any specialty. There’s a lot of variety in social work environments and specialties. For instance, clinical social workers are able to diagnose and treat different mental, behavioral, and emotional issues, in addition to other duties. Also, the three specialties that the BLS provides job outlook statistics for — child, family, and school social work; healthcare social workers; and mental health and substance abuse social work — offer some additional specialties.
Featured Online Social Work Schools
With an inclusive community dedicated to the transformative power of learning, Aurora…
View Programs for Aurora University Request InfoWith 50+ online degree programs in business, education, social work and more; Campbel…
View Programs for Campbellsville University Request InfoKing University, located in Bristol, Tenn., offers numerous online degrees for adult …
View Programs for King University Request InfoVirginia Wesleyan University has online undergraduate and graduate degree programs in…
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Within those environments, there are even more specialties. For instance, as a child, family, and school social worker, you could work specifically in foster care, helping place children in the foster care system with loving families. As a healthcare social worker, you could work specifically in areas like hospice social work, assisting patients and families. Another specialty in that environment is medical social work, which involves helping guide, educate, and counsel patients with chronic or terminal illnesses.
Pay and Job Outlook
The median annual wage for social workers is $47,980, and there’s plenty of room for salary growth in certain industries. For instance, social workers working in hospitals earn $58,490, and those working in local government earn $52,900.
As noted previously, social workers enjoy strong growth in the overall career and within many specialties. Employment of social workers overall is projected to increase 16% by 2026.
How to Become a Social Worker
Becoming social worker requires a bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW). That degree will prepare you to work with individuals, families, and groups in a number of environments and roles. Obtaining a strong foundation in the field with a BSW is an ideal step to making the career change to social work. Online BSW programs make it easy to gain the education you need to achieve your career goals by providing you with a flexible format that works with your current schedule.
To become a clinical social worker, you’ll need a master’s degree in social work (MSW). That degree will provide you with the clinical assessment and management skills needed to provide counseling services in your specialty. Like with the BSW, there are online MSW programs that can help you enhance your education in a convenient learning environment.
Licensure is required for all clinical roles and in many entry-level positions. The specific requirements vary by state, however. Often, non-clinical social workers will need to pass their state’s bachelor’s-level examination with the Association of Social Work Boards. Clinical social workers need two years of supervised experience after completing their MSW, and then they must pass an exam.
Current Transferable Skills
What kinds of skills will you need to become a social worker? Here are a few notable skills that social workers use on a regular basis:
Social workers must listen to and understand their clients’ needs. Additionally, communication skills allow social workers to interact with people and organizations in the community, which is relevant for obtaining support services, providing education, and developing programs.
Empathy with clients is crucial for social workers as they need to be able to display compassion and patience to clients. Since clients are often experiencing tough situations, social workers need to have high emotional intelligence to effectively meet clients’ needs and develop strong relationships with them.
Social workers have to manage their caseloads and keep up with other responsibilities. Social work can involve multiple clients and plenty of paperwork, so strong organizational skills are necessary.
Your Career Change to Social Work
Making the career change to social work isn’t as difficult as you might think. In the previous section, you may have noticed some skills that you’ve already developed in your personal or professional life. Those can pay off if you decide to become a social worker.
One example of that principle in action is the career change from nurse to social worker. In nursing, all of the aforementioned skills are important. Helping patients in medical settings requires communication and emotional skills, just like it does in social workers. Also, nurses must manage a number of patients while taking care of other responsibilities, like preparing for shift changes and doing paperwork. If you’re considering a career change from nurse to social worker, the transition could be fairly seamless in terms of skills and interpersonal dynamics. Both of these helping professions place a strong emphasis on not just making a difference in people’s lives, but developing relationships and interacting with people on a deeper level than a lot of other careers.
What if you’re not a nurse? You might be surprised how your skills could apply to a career change to social work. For instance, a background in business could mean that you have the analytical skills needed to succeed in building community programs as a social worker. If you have a background in teaching, it could have helped you acquire the communication skills needed to become a social worker. Like social workers, teachers need to not only communicate clearly with students, but interact and collaborate with parents, other teachers, and administrators.
Those types of scenarios can help illustrate how you can complete your career change to social work. It might seem daunting, but with the right education and skills, you can achieve your goals and have a successful career as a social worker.
Online Social Work Degrees
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- LocationDavenport, IL
- Accreditation(s)HLC, HLC
- Religious AffiliationCatholic
- Cost Per Credit$742
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With the mission to prepare competent and ethical social work professionals who advocate a just society, the Advanced Standing MSW online program at St. Ambrose University offers courses based on the empowerment method of social work. Empowerment social work emphasizes client system strengths and skill development to remove barriers toward growth. Explore this method and develop skills to strengthen your career through MSW online courses that prepare you for practice in healthcare, substance abuse, child welfare, and mental health practice. As you complete your online Advanced Standing MSW degree and study ethical standards for professional social work, you’ll utilize the empowerment method in your practice and help individuals focus on competence rather than deficits. You’ll also develop the skills to engage diversity and difference within your career as you evaluate, assess and intervene with client systems.
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- LocationAda, OK
- Accreditation(s)HLC
- Religious AffiliationPublic
- Cost Per Credit$264.25 In-State, $541.19 Out-of-State
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Our online human services degree can ready you to work in a variety of professional areas including family support, substance abuse, social services, care facilities, prison systems and more. Areas of concentration are counseling, aging and rehabilitation.
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- LocationPittsburgh, PA
- Accreditation(s)MSCHE, CCNE, CSWE, IACBE, ACEN
- Religious AffiliationCatholic
- Cost Per Credit$495
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Carlow University offers an Online BA in Psychology with multiple start dates a year and generous transfer credits. Students can also earn up to 12 advanced credits of graduate-level coursework at the bachelor’s level tuition rate, and fast track into grad programs upon completion. Graduate in as few as 12 months from a program built around small class sizes for personalized learning. Unique to Carlow, the Designing Your Life Course approach allows you to pursue and explore career options per customized course curricula.
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- LocationCampbellsville, KY
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationChristian
- Cost Per Credit$399
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Develop an understanding of the basics of social work while also gaining hands-on, practical experience in the field with the online Bachelor of Social Work program from Campbellsville University. Through the program, you’ll learn the historical and contemporary principles of social work, as well as the theoretical perspectives related to the field. You will also discover the necessary skills for performing generalist social work practice in a variety of areas: communities and organizations, individuals, families, and groups.
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- LocationBristol, TN
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationPresbyterian
- Cost Per Credit$305
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King University’s online Bachelor of Social Work degree program is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to become global citizens and make an impact in an in-demand career in social work or human services. Choose between three concentrations — nurse educator, administrator, and PNP — and learn to apply advocacy and intervention strategies to support individuals, families, groups, communities, and organizations.
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- LocationAurora, IL
- Accreditation(s)HLC
- Religious AffiliationPrivate
- Cost Per Credit$425
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Develop the skills and knowledge needed to begin social work practice with the online Bachelor of Social Work degree completion program from Aurora University. You’ll be prepared to work with communities, groups, families, and individuals in a variety of settings as well as with diverse populations and problems.
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- LocationLakeland, FL
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, CCNE
- Religious AffiliationPentecostal – Assemblies of God
- Cost Per Credit$390
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Southeastern University’s online Bachelor of Science in Human Services program is for students who feel called to the interdisciplinary, vital, and rapidly growing human services industry. This degree prepares you to become a helper in multiple settings and environments. You will be qualified to work in environments such as clinics, nursing homes, social services agencies, substance abuse programs, homeless shelters, and community organizations.
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- LocationLakeland, FL
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC
- Religious AffiliationPentecostal – Assemblies of God
- Cost Per Credit$495
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Southeastern University’s Online Master of Arts in Human Services degree provides students with a theoretical and experience-based understanding of the human services profession. This non-clinical program allows you to choose a specialization based on the types of organizations and people you would like to help. Upon graduation, you will be prepared to serve others in a variety of human services settings.
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- LocationUtica, NY
- Accreditation(s)MSCHE ACBSP
- Religious Affiliation–
- Cost Per Credit$775
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With Social Work jobs estimated to increase 13% through 2029, Utica’s MSW graduates are positioned for success in an array of industries comprising higher education, nonprofit sectors, social services, criminal justice, academia, and public health. For careers which promote mental heath and recovery and building a more humane society, graduates of the online MSW are prepared for licensure exams in their homestate and prepared for immediate impact.
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- LocationPittsburgh, PA
- Accreditation(s)MSCHE, CCNE, CSWE, IACBE, ACEN, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationCatholic
- Cost Per Credit$650
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Take advantage of Carlow’s “flexible hybrid format” earning an MSW that leaves graduates prepared for licensure exams. The format is designed for students to continue in their valuable roles, while earning a degree that opens up opportunities for more influential positions.. Graduate in as few as 18 months or pursue the MSW-MBA dual degree program for those pursuing additional specialization.
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- LocationPensacola, FL
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, CSWE
- Religious Affiliation–
- Cost Per Credit$450
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UWF’s clinically focused online MSW program provides the knowledge and skills to enter the workplace prepared for advanced social work practice. You will complete a specialized study of medical and behavioral healthcare in this program, which blends clinical internships with hands-on learning. Students who hold a bachelor’s degree in social work can fast-track their studies and complete our online MSW clinical curriculum, while those without previous social work experience* can gain the experience they need through foundational coursework that prepares them for the rigors of social work practice.
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- LocationTeaneck, NJ
- Accreditation(s)MSCHE, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationPrivate
- Cost Per Credit825
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Fairleigh Dickinson University’s online Master of Social Work trains students to promote physical, psychological and social well-being for clients in their communities. It is delivered in a flexible online format and can be completed in two years. The Master of Social Work online program provides a comprehensive learning experience that combines social work theory with practical application. The online MSW degree features two program options, advanced standing and traditional.
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- LocationCampbellsville, KY
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationChristian
- Cost Per Credit$559
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The online MSW program from Campbellsville University prepares you for career advancement so that you can move out of entry-level positions in the field. With a curriculum rooted in ethical and Christian ideals, the program helps you develop an advanced understanding of the practical and theoretical knowledge necessary for becoming a leader in social work. Accredited by the CSWE, this program offers the opportunity to pursue a career in a wide range of areas, including therapy and counseling, community mental health, child protection, the criminal justice system, public advocacy and home health. You could also enter a career in the VA or while on active duty in the military as an addiction or substance abuse counselor.
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- LocationAurora, IL
- Accreditation(s)HLC
- Religious AffiliationPrivate
- Cost Per Credit$600
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Develop a foundation in generalist clinical social work and specialized study with the online Master of Social Work from Aurora University. Through 1,050 hours of required field instruction, you’ll have the opportunity to apply theories to real-world situations. Customize your learning experience with optional specializations in faith-based social work, forensics, healthcare, leadership administration, and a professional educator licensure.
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- LocationFayetteville, NC
- Accreditation(s)SACSCOC, ACBSP, AACN, DPI, CSWE
- Religious AffiliationMethodist
- Cost Per Credit$400
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MU’s online Bachelor of Social Work degree delivers a multi-faceted that leaves graduates prepared academically, emotionally, and with needed accreditation for a meaningful career of impact and advocacy. Dedicated, experienced faculty deliver a highly specialized program designed to generate critical thinking, practical solutions, and outcomes of socio-economic justice resulting from advanced decision-making capabilities in the field. In addition to an interdisciplinary curricular approach covering courses in biology, psychology, and sociology, this Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredited and NC-CWEC recognized program provides active internship opportunities qualifying participating students for Child Welfare placements upon graduation.
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- LocationChester , PA
- Accreditation(s)CSWE, CSWE
- Religious Affiliation–
- Cost Per Credit$898
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Widener University’s Online MSW program is a uniquely designed program created to address themes of trauma, both as a curricular theme and studying its cause and effect in the field of Social Work. With a firmer understanding of the area of study and its application, graduates are better equipped to serve clients, families, and communities, focused not only in career advancement but greatest impact. The CSWE-accredited degree offers both regular admission or Advanced Standing admission for students who have earned a Bachelor in Social Work.